The grammar school girl with a magical movie career

with actor David Thewlis at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

Ruth Savage

Any of those lucky enough to see Hebe Beardsall’s magnificent performances as Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Miss Trunchbull in Matilda on the Ripon Grammar School stage will have suspected they may just have been watching a star in the making.

The talented actress is about to appear on the big screen, in Full Monty producer Uberto Pasolini’s new film Still Life, which stars Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt and recently premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

Hebe plays teenage mother Lucy in the film, which also stars Sherlock Holmes and Happy-Go-Lucky actor Eddie Marsan as a council officer tasked with tracking down relatives of those who die alone, and is due for release in the UK within the next few months.

The 20-year-old Durham University English student, who left Ripon Grammar School in 2011, plans to pursue a career in acting full-time after she graduates next year.

She knew she wanted to be an actress from the age of ten when she took part in school performances including playing the poet Homer in one particularly adventurous production, at Kell Bank Primary School near Masham.

“I know it sounds a bit clichéd but I was really shy. Acting was the one thing that brought me out of my shell.

“My shyness just disappeared when I was on stage. It helped me develop in confidence.”

She was just 15 when she bagged the part most teenagers could only dream of – that of Ariana Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

After contacting casting agents to see if anyone was auditioning for a fair-haired teenager, the budding young actress got a call out of the blue.

“They just happened to be casting Harry Potter and invited me to London to audition,” she explains.

It may have been a fleeting role but competition was fierce to win a part, no matter how small, in what was to turn out to be one of the top five worldwide grossing films of all time.

“The sets were mind-blowing – it was so cool to see them first hand,” she said.

But it wasn’t all star-studded glamour. “The waiting around is so boring,” she confesses. A number of TV roles followed, including the part of Pacifist Pam in the CBBC TV science fiction series The Sparticle Mystery.

Academically gifted – Hebe gained 10 A*/A grade GCSEs and an A* and two As at A-level – her parents never tried to persuade her to follow a more conventional and secure career path. But as the daughter of writer Jonny and sculptor Janie Beardsall, who also design and make fabulously outlandish reclaimed fur hats which have featured in Vogue, Hebe was never going to work in an office.

Jonny and Janie have always encouraged Hebe and her 17-year-old sister Ruby, who wants to be a fashion designer, to follow their dreams.

“I come from a very arty, creative family and they are so supportive. I probably wasn’t ever going to do a normal job.”

It is a cut-throat business, particularly for young actresses starting out, but Hebe takes it all in her stride.

“Rejection is something I am quite good at taking at the moment,” she says.

“It is an extremely difficult industry to break into, especially if you are a young, blonde female. But I am very determined,” she adds.

Hebe has been told she has a “period drama face”. Unique and full of character, the up-and-coming actress certainly has the look many casting directors are after.

“It’s important not to be pressurised into looking a certain way or being too skinny. You have to embrace the look you have got and make that work for you. You need to find your niche.” Effortlessly stylish, she loves vintage clothes: “I know what I like, I don’t follow trends,” she says.

While studying for her degree, she has been enjoying taking part in Durham student drama productions, playing a wide-range of roles including Miss Wade in State of Fugue and Ismene in Sophocles’s Antigone, which attracted critical praise.

Her next big part is that of Nora Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie. “Durham Student Theatre is thriving and I really enjoy being a part of it.” What she loves most about acting is the varied personalities she explores. “I’m intrigued by psychology so it’s amazing to delve into different characters.” Her ambition is to appear in a period drama. “I would love to be a Bennet sister in Pride and Prejudice,” she says.

One of her role models is the British Olivier-award winning actress Ruth Wilson, best known as Alice Morgan in the BBC TV psychological crime drama Luther and star of the film Jane Eyre. “She has such an incredible face and is so versatile.”

The big-budget film work Hebe has experienced is a world away from where she first started on her primary school stage and admits that, at times, it feels almost unreal.

“Every time I am on these big sets, with famous actors and directors, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

At the Harry Potter premiere in London in July 2011, she rubbed shoulders with actors like Alan Rickman, Jim Broadbent and David Thewlis and she was particularly thrilled to meet X-Men: First Class actor Nicholas Hoult.

Although Hebe emphasises her role in Still Life is small, she says it was an incredible experience. “Thankfully, the baby actresses I worked with were impeccably behaved and so sweet.”

Hebe would encourage students who want to pursue a career in acting to persevere.

“Drama school, post school or university, is the most conventional route in or you could try sending letters with a headshot and information about you to casting directors,” she says. “I’d recommend buying Contacts, a handbook with advice and contact details for everybody in the industry.”

n This article appears in the current edition of Ripon Grammar School’s alumni magazine, The Clocktower. which can be downloaded at ripongrammar.co.uk/old_riponians_association

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Ripon Gazette provides news, events and sport features from the Ripon area. For the best up to date information relating to Ripon and the surrounding areas visit us at Ripon Gazette regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Ripon Gazette requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.